Posts Tagged ‘2014’

Giorgio Mammoliti is giving a thumb’s up to running for another term on city council.

Mammoliti told the Sun he plans to register to run for re-election representing York West (Ward 7) on Thursday at 9:30 a.m.

“The cutting at City Hall isn’t finished and while nobody is really talking about it in the mayoral race – they all just seem to be talking about how to spend money – there is $100 million or so that we could probably save the first year in amalgamating our housing offices,” Mammoliti said Wednesday.

“I need to stop the LRT on Finch Avenue … and try to get Finch designated for a future subway line and bring on busing lanes in the meantime.”

The controversial councillor – and one-time NDP MPP – was one of Mayor Rob Ford’s council allies at the start of this term although he later jumped off the mayor’s executive committee (and eventually came back after a few months).

But will Mammoliti support anyone for mayor? He says he may end up backing Ford.

“At this point the only one talking about keeping the agenda going … seems to be Mayor Ford,” Mammoliti said. “Unless he does something outrageous and crazy it looks like my community (and) myself may be supporting him.”

Before making a formal endorsement, Mammoliti said he plans to have a meeting with his “advisors” ahead of Election Day.

“It will be about 200 people that will tell us, me, where Ward 7 will be throwing their support in in the mayoral race,” Mammoliti said. “We’ll probably be inviting all the mayoral candidates to prove to them that it is them that should be elected in Ward 7.”

The veteran councillor is still facing problems from his 2010 election campaign.

He’s facing five charges of violating the Municipal Elections Act. Those charges were brought by a special prosecutor appointed by the city’s compliance audit committee.

Mayoral candidate David Soknacki is proudly touting his lack of name recognition as a reason to vote for him.

Soknacki – who is a former budget chief and city councillor – is running to replace Mayor Rob Ford this year but, unlike the mayor, he hasn’t smoked crack cocaine so he’s not an international celebrity (NOTE: Mayor Ford denies he’s an international celebrity).

On Thursday, the Soknacki campaign released an ad on Twitter to mock his lack of global fame and draw attention at the same time to how the mayor’s antics have made him a frequent topic of late-night comics:

Hours later after the mayor lashed out at Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair (story here), the Soknacki campaign released this ad:

Pretty slick moves for a candidate at the back of the frontrunner pack.

- Olivia Chow on running for mayor of Toronto in 2014. Chow made the comment on CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight on Wednesday (clip here).

It’s like a slow march to a campaign announcement but it is a step towards the epic political showdown between Chow and Mayor Rob Ford. The NDP MP has moved from saying she’s “listening” to residents telling her to run for mayor of Toronto (story here) to she’s “considering” running for the city’s highest office – that’s a little closer to the buzz we’re hearing at City Hall.

Mayor Rob Ford gave a barnburner of a speech at Friday night’s Ford Fest vowing it marked the start of the 2014 election.

In a speech that stretched to almost 10 minutes in length, Ford thanked his supporters and family, listed off the accomplishments of his mayoralty, took a thinly-veiled shot at the court case against him and encouraged those in attendance to help him fight to keep the mayor’s chair starting now.

Here’s a transcript of Mayor Rob Ford’s speech to the crowd at Ford Fest:

Thank you. Thank you so much.

(Crowd cheers, “Rob, Rob, Rob”)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I can’t thank you enough.

It seems like we were doing this yesterday but it was only two years ago that I sat here probably at the same time when the election was about a month away saying, “When I get down to City Hall, the gravy train is over. “

Well folks, the gravy train is over!

I said I was going to go down there with your support and clean it up and get rid of the $60 car tax. We got rid of the $60 car tax. I said we weren’t’ going to have another strike. We have a four-year deal with the unions, there will not be a strike for four years. I said, “We are going to contract out garbage saving $12 million a year.” We have contracted out garbage saving $12 million a year.

Folks, that’s just the beginning.

And most importantly, I said, “You know what, we have to lead by example. We have to lead by the councillors and the mayor.” The first thing I had to do was reduce the size and cost of government and I said I don’t need a chauffeur and I don’t need a driver and I don’t need all the other stuff.

I said, “I will reduce my office budget and the councillors by a million dollars.” We did exactly that. I cut it, $700,000 of your hard-earned tax dollars.

I said, “We were not going to have anymore $12,000 farewell parties.” That is why there are no more $12,000 farewell parties, folks.

I couldn’t have done it without your support.

We have done more this year, in the last two years, than the previous administration and that has done in the last 10 years combined.

Most importantly, I couldn’t have done this without my lovely wife Renata beside my side day in and day out. I want to thank her for all her support.

I want to thank my mom for hosting the party here tonight. My brother Doug. As you know, um, he gives me the marching orders and I march so we work as a team. My brother Randy, he’s the brains behind the operation, we couldn’t do anything without his support, running a company that has given us 50 years of a very comfortable living. And my sister Kathy, helping out in every way that she has been there all the time when we need her. So I want to thank our family most importantly.

And there is one person that we could never, ever, ever forget is my dad up in heaven. I love you dad, I know you are with us.

So folks, I’m not going to list all our accomplishments but I have to tell you one thing – the campaign for the next election has started today. The next election is two years away. We have to get out there, bang on the doors. As you saw this week, they are coming after us every which way. They want to continue the high taxes, the big spending and the out-of-control waste at City Hall.

Folks, I want to thank you for your support. I want to thank the councillors that are here tonight. I’m sorry if I’ve missed some people, I’ve just got off the football field coaching. I know, I know some people think that is a terrible thing to help kids out but unfortunately I’m helping kids out and I invite you to our first game which is next Friday at Esther Shiner stadium at 5 o’clock against the Metro Bowl champs the Don Wilson Gators. And mark my words, we are going to be the Metro Bowl champs not Donald Wilson.

I saw a few councillors here, I saw Councillor Crawford and Councillor Grimes and Councillor Ainslie. Thank you so much. And the speaker Frances Nunziata.

(The councillors gather on the stage)

We call Grimes-y he’s the mayor after midnight so he’s the Midnight Mayor.

But folks, we are turning the city around, we have a lot of work to do, we need your support in the next two years because the tax-and-spend people want to take it back and they are not getting it back. We have the city turned around, we have to keep it turned around.

I want to thank you so much for your support. Enjoy yourselves. God bless you.

Does the thought of Councillor Shelley Carroll running for mayor worry the Fords?

Carroll has said she’s still mulling a run for mayor. She came out Tuesday criticizing Mayor Rob Ford for “not doing his job” (story here).

Councillor Doug Ford said Wednesday he’s not worried about Carroll as a possible political foe to Mayor Ford in the 2014 election. But Councillor Ford quickly added he’ll never underestimate anyone’s odds at the ballot box.

“I never underestimate anyone and as far as I’m concerned anyone and everyone are going to beat us so we’re going to work hard,” Ford told reporters. “Because the biggest mistake that all the councillors did was underestimate Rob last time and we’ll never underestimate anyone.

But what you wouldn’t know unless you watched the day-long meeting was Ford split after that deferral vote.

We didn’t see him again at the meeting until the final vote.

I have no idea whether he had work to do elsewhere or if he was fuming somewhere behind the scenes but Ford was out of sight for a few hours.

But here’s what I do know.

While Ford was gone lots of councillors got a chance to try out his empty chair.

Some were no doubt using the empty chair to talk to Ford’s seat neighbour Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti but I have a funny feeling, particularly after I started tweeting about it that day, some were enjoying drawing attention to the empty seat.

Either way, it’s an interesting glimpse at what the future could look like if any of those taking the big guy’s big chair for a test drive ever become Toronto’s mayor.

City Hall history tells us mayors usually cut their teeth as city councillors first.

Given all the talk this week about possible 2014 mayoral candidates (cough) Karen Stintz (cough), why not think about it.

Sun photographer Jack Boland started snapping pictures of the interesting possibilities of these could-be mayors.

Don Peat

Don Peat is the City Hall bureau chief for the Toronto Sun. He covers municipal affairs at Toronto City Hall, a beat that has him writing about everything from garbage to transit to taxes to multimillion-dollar spending scandals.